Don't Need No Roads.

It's so painful and exhausting and terrifying to hear the propaganda from people I love. They endorse Trump and call any opposition "fake news" or "libtard". They write off the COVID19 precautions and the science behind it as "media hype" and "a violation of our freedom". They demonize black people and refuse to acknowledge the deep rooted racism in our country, including the justice system. And if you oppose them, they will fight tooth and nail and twist every fact and detail and make themselves feel better, all the while making themselves look more stupid.

I want so badly to make them see the lies, wake them up to the monsters they've become. I don't want an antimasker uncle. I don't want a "build the wall" aunt. I don't want my grandmother to fear black people in her community and welcome police violence. I desperately want to ask them, "you aren't really buying into this, are you? You don't actually hate Mexicans or Blacks or the planet or the poor or the CDC, do you?"

I have aged mentally this year. I have lost an innocence I didn't know I had. The blissful ignorance to my own blood, and their violent, blatant disregard for human life.

And I'm so exhausted from it that I can only vent on platforms where none of those family members can see what I have to say: Black Lives Matter. Save our children. Wear a fucking mask. Trump is a criminal. Our system is fucked. Our planet is fucked. And I hope for a collective change of heart every single day.